HOMELESS levels in England have increased every year since the Tory-led coalition took power, the government’s own figures revealed yesterday.

An annual snapshot of statistics released by the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) shows that 2,744 people were found to be sleeping rough on a given night last autumn.

That is up 330 from 2,414 people in autumn 2013, an increase of 14 per cent that continues a trend of rising numbers over the last five years.

London was found to have 742 people sleeping rough on one night, an increase of 37 per cent on 2013 compared with a rise of 7 per cent in the rest of England.

The figures, based on counts and estimates by local authorities, show a 55 per cent increase on the 1,768 rough-sleepers counted in 2010.

Rick Henderson, chief executive of Homeless Link, said: “We should ask ourselves why it is acceptable that anyone has to sleep rough in Britain today. What’s even more shocking is that the number of people in this situation has risen every year since 2010.

“The hard work of many local services to help new rough sleepers as quickly as possible shows that we can turn this situation around. Unfortunately, many charities have seen funding fall at the very time that demand for help is on the rise.”

Crisis chief executive Jon Sparkes said the figures show that the law is badly failing people facing homelessness.

“Welfare reform, benefit cuts and a chronic shortage of affordable homes mean more and more people are coming to their council as homeless,” he said.

“But as the law stands, far too often when single people ask for help, they are turned away to sleep on the street.”

Emma Reynolds, Labour’s shadow housing minister, said: “The Tory-led government has presided over the lowest levels of housebuilding in peace time since the 1920s, a drop in the number of affordable homes being built and policies like the bedroom tax have made things even worse.”